Nov 21 Open thread—What a glorious blue wave

Last night, in an improbably win, Democrat Ben McAdams edged out Rep. Mia Love in ruby red Utah, making her seat the 39th to be flipped in the 2018 midterms. Meanwhile, in California, a race which had been called on election night for GOP Rep. David Valadao is becoming more precarious; an 8-point lead on election night has dwindled to barely 1% as votes keep getting counted. That’s another contest which might flip, and give Democrats a net gain of 40 seats.

When things didn’t seem rosy on election night, we feared that Donald Trump had mobilized enough of his base to stymie Democrats. But like all good things, it took time for the true ramifications of November 6 to become apparent. This is a wave election. Not only is it a wave election, but it’s a repudiation of Trumpism, as 60 million voters gave their votes to Democrats, and won the national popular vote by 8 million ballots cast, and counting.

The fear among some pundits and analysts is that the next fascist to come along will be able to read. These results should allay those concerns somewhat. We are, most of us, a decent people. We don’t revel in cruelty and bigotry, and we stand up against them. There is a majority in this country which holds America’s best ideals to heart, and it has now been activated.